October Fiction Book Club: The True True Story of Raja the Gullible

Schedule

Tue Oct 21 2025 at 07:00 pm to 08:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Old Town Books | Alexandria, VA

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Join us as we discuss The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine at our October Fiction Book Club!
About this Event

Old Town Books' Fiction Book Club is free and open to the public. While buying the book at OTB is not required to attend, we would greatly appreciate it to help keep our free literary programming sustainable! Buy your copy of The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine at the shop or online and note "book club" to get 10% off.

By attending any and all Old Town Books events you are agreeing to our code of conduct.

Old Town Books is committed to creating accessible events and spaces for the widest possible audience. Please reach out to us at [email protected] for reasonable accessibility accommodations.


About the book:

From National Book Award finalist and winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction comes a tragicomic love story set in Lebanon, a modern saga of family, memory, and the unbreakable attachment of a son and his mother

In a tiny Beirut apartment, sixty-three-year-old Raja and his mother live side by side. A beloved high school philosophy teacher and “the neighborhood homosexual,” Raja relishes books, meditative walks, order, and solitude. Zalfa, his octogenarian mother, views her son’s desire for privacy as a personal affront. She demands to know every detail of Raja’s work life and love life, boundaries be damned.

When Raja receives an invite to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in America, the timing couldn’t be better. It arrives on the heels of a series of personal and national disasters that have left Raja longing for peace and quiet away from his mother and the heartache of Lebanon. But what at first seems a stroke of good fortune soon leads Raja to recount and relive the very disasters and past betrayals he wishes to forget.

Told in Raja’s irresistible and wickedly funny voice, the novel dances across six decades to tell the unforgettable story of a singular life and its absurdities—a tale of mistakes, self-discovery, trauma, and maybe even forgiveness. Above all, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) is a wildly unique and sparkling celebration of love.

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Where is it happening?

Old Town Books, 130 South Royal Street, Alexandria, United States

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